The purpose of this course is to introduce you to current global challenges in conservation and development, including changes in both sectors. This course will inspire you to rethink assumptions to address global challenges in conservation and development, and introduce you to new models and approaches that harness technological, behavioral, and financial innovation. This course will equip you with the insights, skills and approaches necessary to successfully overcome these obstacles. In addition, this course will provide participants with the tools, models, and approaches to address global grand challenges in conservation and development, to question fundamental assumptions, and to create and execute new solutions. Course participants will be trained in the processes around innovation and design to address global grand challenges. This includes content focused on constructing innovation pipelines, principals of design and engineering unique to the developing world and to conservation (Design for the Other 90%), on harnessing and developing disruptive technologies, principles of behavior and marketing, and on overcoming the challenges with setting up social ventures.
The course format will facilitate the development of a global community of innovators who will help solve the current and future grand challenges our planet faces in conservation and development, and will encourage thinking about how to do so that rethinks traditional assumptions and approaches within both conservation and development. This course will leverage the incredible idealism and interest in social entrepreneurship, design, and innovation among the millennials, in the US and abroad, and is intended to appeal to those interested in the maker movement. It also seeks to engage individuals in the developing world who are closest to the problems of conservation and development, who would benefit from the approaches taught in the course, and who can leverage their own knowledge of local culture.

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Exponential Technology and Open Source Innovation

The democratization of science and technology has given us powerful new tools to apply to the grand challenges identified in previous modules. Technology has gained exponentially in processing power, memory capacity, sensor density and number, pixel capacity, and storage. Current advances in molecular biology are rivaling (and in some cases overtaking) the rate of change that we have seen in computing and information technology. The democratization of information technology, coupled with the global spread of mobile platforms, particularly smartphones, allows for revolutionary new approaches in conservation and development that were impossible a decade ago. We have new ways of monitoring the planet from low cost sensors on artisanal fishing boats, to drones and to nanosatellites, that allow us to monitor the planet at multiple scales with unprecedented resolution and cadence. 3D Printing allows for faster prototyping and decentralization of manufacturing. Greater degrees of global connectivity allow us to crowd source the world for new ideas through open innovation. Open source approaches can help develop and/or source new ideas or products, distribute the burden for collecting and analyzing data, co-design new solutions, and share in the burdens of research, publication, and funding, while simultaneously engaging the public. <p>This module is an introduction to these new tools and technologies for conservation and development through lectures, technology demos, and interviews with leading engineers, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are at the cutting edge of some of these areas. These interviews include leaders at Indiegogo, XPRIZE, Planet Labs, and USAID. You will receive an in-depth look at open source innovation, including how to run a crowdfunding campaign. You will closely examine the internal mechanics of two of the Grand Challenges for Development programs: maternal and child health, and using innovation to design a better protective suit for Ebola. <p> To get started, view the video "Emerging Technologies for Conservation and Development, Part 1."</p>